And now we interupt for a small but beautifull Shadowscythe LDD build . . .

The Scythian "Payload" class freighter.

A simple civilian haulage vehicle - these vessels can be seen in their millions throughout the empire, owned both by the military and by civilian holdings they are a mid-range, mid-load cargo spacecraft with reasonable FTL range, low level armor and two turreted Laser Canons (of a new design I am playing with) - unable to match against most military frigates, but more than enough to deal with most enemy fighter craft or gunboats/corvettes.

Through the course of the Immortal War, they have become prime targets of the Immortal and Britannian forces alike, looking to deny their enemy vital resources for the frontline, and these ships now travel in roaming packs, normally joined with at least one Monarch class battlecruiser as they trek through the eternal void.

For once, in a spectacular rarity ladies and gentlemen, the Scythian Empires R&D fucked up.

Two years ago, the call was put forward to upgrade and retrofit our aging "Monarch" class battleships to a modernised standard for the escalating Immortal war - the plans put forward to Rigel Kentaurus shipyards and the FTL institute on the homeworld - but for some reason, that plan was copied - and another version sent to the Skunkworks department operated by S.O.N.I.

Now the Mousetrap skunkworks is an R&D department, but is more aligned with reverse engineering far older technologies, from non-KINGUNDERTHEMOUNTAIN sources, dead alien worlds - wreckage from crafts belonging to other species occasionally found in deep space - never a directed project of already Scythian origin that was a revision rather than a reversion of already existing designs.

While the teams on Rigel Kentaurus worked tirelessly on how to upgrade weaponry and power requirements, the Mousetrap Skunkworks moved in another direction - using newer civilian based compounds to lighten and strengthen armour plating, While Rigel K's teams worked on the new Tri-barrel laser point defense turrets, Mousetrap worked on older wreckage to develop faster weapon mounting servos - why increase firepower when you could simply track targets faster and with more accuracy?

Rigel Kentaurus focused on more shield power, while Mousetrap instead worked on heightening the resistance of already existing shields - based off of the technologies they already had at their disposal - Rigel Kentaurus moved towards bigger engines, Mousetrap instead refined those engines.

And then, at the end of their two years - BOTH plans hit the admiralty depolyment couincil at the same time, neither teams knew the other existed and the admiralty had a headache on their hands.

So in the end, the Admiralty took both works into consideration, and ordered both teams to be combined and given KINGUNDERTHEMOUNTAIN resources to figure out the next generation of the Monarch class.

The end result was the not so inspirational named Monarch Mark-III

Larger and refined power plants, combining the best elements of both overhauls directed into higher-resistance shields with the Rigel developed high-capacity shields as a backup, the ship utilizes the higher-tensile Armour from Mousetrap backed with an intertwined honeycomb of support braces from Rigel.

The weapons mounts are from Mousetrap, utilizing faster turret speeds while the loadouts remain the same, but they are now backed up with Rigel Kentaurus based Tri-laser cannons for point defence - the Monarch Mark-III is only just rolling out of Rigel Kentaurus shipyards and onto the front lines.

May the enemies of Scythia feel fear in their bones when the Maidens of Scythia come to claim their souls for the underworld.

"Ladies, Gentlemen, representatives of the Anti-Immortal Alliance - I would like to welcome you all here today to talk about a year.

G.R 2009

Let me talk to you for a moment about G.R 2009."

The Camera drone wavered for a moment, hovering 50 meters above the botanical beauty of the most ancient and revered area within the palace walls. Vast and verdant glades of green flowing grass linked by pathways of white, crushed marble linked with serene pools of clean, near transparent water with fish of every variety describable darting and flitting between them.

In front of the ancient stone-hearth palace is a podium of simple Scythian red wood. Behind it a man. Before it, over a thousand emissary, generals, admirals and guests from nigh a dozen nations of the stars.

The beating heart of the Anti-Immortal Alliance.

Behind them, the worn stone walls of the ancient palace. The barracks of the Scythian Elite - the Emperors Gaurd. Beyond that, shield generators and Anti-matter generators kept safely behind the 75 meter high walls of solid titanium, the modern "outer-walls" of the Scythian Palace.

The man behind the podium? None other than the Scythian Emperor-in-Situ.

Lord Hearcer."G.R 2009 the year when the Scythian people where beckoned to war, the distant ever beating wardrum of the Immortals - a distant whisper for over a generation arrived on our doorstep.

G.R 2009 is the year this galaxy stopped being innocent.

G.R 2009 is the year FICO fell.

On that day, 500 Years's of isolationalism and hiding from the greater galaxy came to its end. The Scythian people stood forward - the oldest of the first to ascend to the stars, as shield and bloody sword to defend the young.

Four Years of bloody war have passed since that day.

We have starved the Immortals attempts at invasion in no less than 300 systems, and reclaimed over 100 worlds - We have saved trillions from the destitute mark of a jackboot or near worse but still the fight continues.

We have felt the brunt of their fury - 43 of our own worlds have fallen, many more are in conflict to this day. 19 billion troops have died on our front lines, 12 billion civilian casualties.

To this I say no more.

We have grown, we have evolved.

We have sharpened the tools of necessity into a weapon of war. Today is the day we use those tools to end this war.

Today is the day we begin our war of extermination!

The Immortals will treat us to nothing more than genocide if they are to succeed, so our tactics must change in turn.

We have received word, through our most developed of covert-espionage centers that the Immortal Emperor himself is coming here, to our galaxy - with the rest of his people in tow.

To them there will be no speech, no negotiation, no heroics. Nothing less than the utter resolve to burn his people from the stars until not one of them remains.

As most other Empires know, the Scythian Empire is one steeped throughout in its military roots.

Mandatory conscription from the age of 18 for all but the most infirm and frail, 10 years of service in the armed forces, navy or S.O.N.I - which means every civilian at the age of 28 or above is a military veteran of one type or another - but ALL are trained in the basic arts of defending oneself and ones home from attack.

As most concepts go - the Scythian 'Jaguar' variant is simple - built from the most basic of components and materials with as little effort as needed, choke the Immortals on every front with single-man suppression vehicles, in theory it is simply a lower upkeep, wheeled version of the Scythian "Cockroach" Urban Suppression Vehicle - in practice, it is one of the Immortals greatest wet-dreams and nightmares rolled into one.

Now so successful, the 'Jaguar' is now available on the Scythian Extranet on all worlds - for any member of the public to build if their world is under threat.

The original Samurai design, while inspired - was flawed in its execution due to the flaws in its armor, weaponry and layout.

These problems have been identified, and have now been resolved.

Allow me to show you something new the Scythian Empire has up its sleeves.

Now what? I hear you ask, could warrant a laser rifle design on this scale?

Ladies and Gentlemen, what you see before you is the redesigned Samruai Veritech Fighter - the MK-II.

Smaller, Faster and better armed than most gunships - the Samurai MK-II now boasts Two Lance Lasers, which adapt to rifle form for its mecha mode - and a nose-pintle mounted Gatling Laser Cannon which follows the Pilots POV, an additional mounting rack for micro missiles and two fire and forget GT-Missiles. It is capable of short range (less than 1 Light Year) FTL jumps and has its own onboard shields.

Non-centralized control systems based upon the corpse of a fallen soldier from battle, remove the brain and bury it deep within the machine, while the body acts as nothing more than a faint to attract fire while the dead mind within is resurrected, driven half mad and let loose with enough weapons to level a city block.

Armed with an eletro-phasic trident of all weapons to stab tanks in close quarters combat, a shoulder mounted grenade launcher, an auto tracking RT laser and black hole missile on the other shoulder, head mounted Flachette cannons and a maidens-damned battering ram of a left arm, the Lich charges into combat with no regard for itself - its enemies firing at the "pilot" of what appears to be a madman's suit of power Armour achieve nothing more than filling a corpse full of holes, all the while the Lich decimates all in its path before moving onto its next target.

Often seen combined with lance-forces of MurderHobo class drones, the Lich and MurderHobo together are nothing but undead cybernetic fury from beyond the grave.